My name is João Ramos and I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I’m the director of the RoboDesign Lab at UIUC.

Previously, I worked as Posdoctoral Associate at the Biomimetic Robotics Lab, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I received my PhD (2018) in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. My research focused in exploring whole-body teleoperation strategies to dynamically control a humanoid robot using bilateral feedback.

I received my B.Sc. (2010) and M.Sc. (2013) in Mechanical Engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (PUC-Rio). I worked on the design and control of an exoskeleton for human strength and endurance augmentation. I was as an exchange student at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy (2009/2010).

My goal is to build dynamic robots with physical skills that surpass those of humans. I’m simply amazed by the art inherent to robotic systems; to design clever mechanisms and to exploit their dynamics to develop elegant control strategies to drive them!

My research interests involve the design, dynamics, and control of high-performance robotic systems such as the HERMES humanoid, a prototype platform for disaster response. I’m also interested in legged locomotion dynamics and control, mechanism design, and actuation systems.